Planetary Citizenship

Ikeda: Dr. Schumacher looked for answers in Buddhist philosophy and said that, whereas conventional Western economists maximize consumption as a rational structure for production power, Buddhist economics sees consumption as a reasonable structure for human satisfaction.

Henderson: Yes. While claiming that greed, competition, acquisitiveness and selfishness drive the economy, conventional economics pretended to be value-free when actually what the economists projected was a bundle of their own values. This was one of the fundamentals that Fritz Schumacher and I agreed on. Most people in the world have values other than being greedy. They like to share and enjoy giving just as much as receiving. Economists, however, ignored cooperative values and eliminated them from their mathematical models. Punishing altruism, caring and sharing while rewarding greed, selfishness and competition is a recipe for conflict, poverty gaps and social disintegration.

Ikeda: The sharing and joy in giving you refer to embodies true human virtue and the profound love of rejoicing in one’s own as well as others’ happiness. In Buddhism, we call this attitude the bodhisattva way. It is prominent in the humanitarian competition advocated by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi in his A Geography of Human Life. It was written in 1903, at a time when nations strove feverishly for wealth, military might and hegemony. Imperialism and colonialism were rampant throughout the world. Keenly observant of what was going on around him, Mr. Makiguchi categorized the struggle for survival under four headings: military competition, political competition, economic competition and humanitarian competition. He argued that the time had come to deemphasize the first three and concentrate on competition in more humane arenas.

Henderson: I’d like to hear more about the fascinating idea of humanitarian competition. Is it similar to the indigenous Potlach custom of peoples of the North American West Coast who rank their status by how much they can give away?

Ikeda: It is certainly similar at the point where we do our utmost to serve others. Mr. Makiguchi insisted that we must change not the category—military, political and so on—but the very nature of competition. Ignoring others while striving exclusively for one’s own happiness is competition between antagonists. Mr. Makiguchi insisted that we shun it in favor of cooperative competition oriented toward mutual happiness. This is illustrated in the following passage from his book: “It should be understood that the ‘humanitarian approach’ does not imply that there is a specific method which can be designated as such. Rather, it is an effort to plan and conduct whatever strategies, whether political, military or economic, in a more humanitarian way. The important thing is the setting of a goal of well-being and protection of all people, including oneself but not at the increase of self-interest alone. In other words, the aim is the betterment of others and in doing so, one chooses ways that will yield personal benefit as well as benefit to others. It is a conscious effort to create a more harmonious community life.”^[1]

Hazel Henderson

(March 27, 1933–May 22, 2022)

Notable Achievements
• Futurist, environmental activist, evolutionary economist and columnist.
• Authored such books as Ethical Markets: Growing the Green Economy, The Politics of the Solar Age and Beyond Globalization: Shaping a Sustainable Global Economy.
• In 1996, shared the Boston Research Center’s Global Citizen Award with Argentinian human rights activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
• Honorary member of the Club of Rome.